H1N1 Virus Campus Advisory

From President David R. Anderson

April 28, 2009

Dear Members of the St. Olaf Community:

I am writing to assure you that the College is keeping abreast of developments in the Swine Flu outbreak, to point you toward resources where you can receive the most recent expert advice on how to respond to these developments, and to recommend steps we can all take to protect our own health and the health of others.

Both the St. Olaf College Health Services and the College’s Pandemic Task Force are actively monitoring the Swine Flu outbreak in conjunction with local, state, and federal agencies. As you know from the news, this is an evolving situation, so we encourage you to make use of the resources listed below to keep informed about the outbreak. Meanwhile, we encourage everyone to act prudently and to adopt the health and hygiene practices listed below.

What is Swine Flu?

The following websites contain the most up-to-date information concerning Swine Flu.

If You Feel Sick:

1. Persons with febrile respiratory illness (i.e. fever and cough and/or sneezing) should stay home from work or school to avoid spreading infections to others in our community.

2. Patients who come to Student Health Services and are coughing will be asked to wear a mask.

Following the advice of the CDC, as of Saturday April 25, clinicians (our student health service included) will consider testing for swine flu individuals with febrile respiratory illness (fever and cough and/or sneezing), who have:

1. Recently returned from San Diego or Imperial County California, or Guadalupe Texas.

2. Traveled recently to Mexico, or were in contact with persons who had febrile respiratory illness and were in one of the three U.S. counties or Mexico during the 7 days preceding their illness onset.

As of yesterday morning, our local pharmacies have stock of the sensitive medication available to treat persons who meet the above conditions and clinical criteria. Currently there is not a vaccine available to treat this swine flu specifically.

What You Can Do to Stay Healthy:

1. Wash Your Hands. Keeping hands clean is the most important step you can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. Wash your hands with soap and clean running water for 20 seconds. If soap and clean water are not available, use an alcohol-based product to clean your hands.

2. Avoid Close Contact with people who are sick (the CDC recommends a distance of 6'). If you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick too.

3. Cover your Cough. Besides being polite, this is a very effective method to lessen the chance of infecting another person. Watch this short, amusing, and informative video on the proper way to cough/sneeze … (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8574515984097771637)

4. Avoid Touching your Eyes, Nose, Mouth since germs spread easily this way.

5. Careful cleaning of frequently used surfaces (doorknobs, desktops, countertops etc.) is encouraged.

6. Maintain Good Health Practices: drink plenty of water, adequate nutrition, adequate sleep, and adequate physical activity.

7. Visit http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/mitigation.htm

8. For at-home care of sick family/friend visit http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/guidance_homecare.htm

While this outbreak is unsettling, we encourage everyone to remain calm, to stay informed, to adopt prudent health practices, and to do what our community has always done best: to watch out for one another.

David Anderson '74
President